Firefighters in Coventry are routinely coming under attack from young thugs as they battle to save lives in the city.

They are regularly physically and verbally assaulted, with incidents such as stone throwing becoming a common sight as they fight fires on the streets of Coventry.

The problem has become so bad that they are now keeping a log of all the attacks.

One of Coventry?s four fire stations has recorded more than 40 incidents in July alone, and 19 of those were cases of physical abuse.

The attacks are risking firefighters? safety so much that fire chiefs say that they will withdraw their men and let a fire burn out if they feel their crews are in danger and there is no direct danger to the public from the flames.

One Binley fireman told the Evening Telegraph: ?We get a lot of cases of physical abuse, where we get stones, bottles and other objects thrown at us as we are trying to help people, but in the past we have had more extreme examples.

?There was one time we had a fridge thrown at us from the eighth floor of a block of flats."